Lieberman is McCain's wingman

Wherever John McCain goes these days, it seems, Joseph I. Lieberman is there.

When McCain needed a quick reminder in Jordan last week on how to characterize Islamic radicals in Iraq receiving aid from Iran, Lieberman was there to whisper into his colleague’s ear. A day later in Israel, the Connecticut senator proved equally helpful, stepping in to help McCain clarify the meaning of the Jewish holiday of Purim.

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Whether wearing yarmulkes together amid the throngs at Jerusalem’s Wailing Wall, meeting reporters outside 10 Downing Street in London or sporting matching suit-and-sweater combos at a snowy New Hampshire town hall meeting, the two have been nearly inseparable since Lieberman endorsed McCain last December.

As McCain hopes to wage a campaign that appeals to an independent-minded electorate exasperated by the Bush administration and the political status quo, Lieberman, a former Democratic vice presidential nominee, has become something of a symbolic character witness meant to testify to the Arizonan’s bipartisan approach.

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As recently as 2000, the McCain-Lieberman political partnership might have seemed unthinkable. At the time, McCain was running for the Republican presidential nomination. And Lieberman was one of the nation’s most prominent Democratic politicians, a well-respected centrist whose selection as Democratic presidential nominee Al Gore’s running mate drew widespread praise.

But always more moralistic than some in his party, Lieberman’s hawkish tendencies have put him squarely out of step with his party, a fact underscored by his dud of a presidential run in 2004.

His steadfast support of the war in Iraq, while the vast majority of Democrats soured on the conflict, left him increasingly isolated. His 2006 Senate primary election loss to a neophyte challenger underscored his fall from favor. Lieberman ultimately won reelection, but it was as a third-party candidate.

Though he had initially wanted to stay out of the 2008 presidential fray, Lieberman was swayed by a personal appeal from McCain, an aide to the Connecticut senator said. Shortly after returning from a trip to Iraq together over Thanksgiving, McCain asked for his colleague’s support, saying it would make the most difference before the New Hampshire primary, where independents and Democrats can participate.

But even after the GOP contest moved to states where his influence was limited, Lieberman wasn’t sidelined. The senator whose party affiliation is now “Independent Democrat” appeared with McCain in conservative South Carolina and in some of the most heavily Republican parts of central Florida.

Besides South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who joined the duo on their overseas trip last week and who enjoys something approaching favorite nephew status with McCain, no other elected official has taken as visible a role or become such a ubiquitous presence in the McCain campaign as the junior senator from Connecticut.

Newly energized and again relevant in national political circles, Lieberman is already being talked about as an obvious pick for a McCain administration, likely as secretary of defense or some other high-profile foreign policy post.

McCain strategists see great value in the dissident Democrat and promise that Lieberman will play a key role in the general election.

As Democrats seek to portray the Arizona senator as representing a third Bush term, argues Salter, Lieberman’s willingness to back a Republican “exposes that for the emptiness that it is.”

“It’s a great story about character and courage,” adds Charlie Black, another top McCain adviser, alluding to Lieberman’s unlikely path from would-be Democratic vice president to senior surrogate for the GOP standard-bearer.

“And it reinforces McCain’s character and courage,” he adds, hinting at the Republican’s own willingness to buck his own party for principle. “[The endorsement] would not have happened for any other Republican.”

Nor would it have happened at all had Lieberman not been so at odds with his former party.

“Clearly that primary challenge he faced was a turning point in Joe Lieberman’s political career,” says Will Marshall, a co-founder of the once-Lieberman-headed Democratic Leadership Council and director of the Progressive Policy Institute. “That experience liberated him to follow his conscience on other political questions.”